My Story

One of my girls did not that want to experience mainstream secondary school, so I started to look for alternatives within my home town of Hammersmith and came across a huge homeschooling community, which we engaged with and had lots of fun.

However, I started to think how much nicer it would be to have all activities and topic groups in one place. The seed I manifested in my heart many years ago began . I pitched the idea to my friends and family who loved it and helped me to grow my vision. It started at home in my kitchen, then we worked with local community leaders who helped us find a home and Spiritus was born!

As I began to think deeper about what Spiritus could really be about, I realised that in our society many of our young people are highly stressed, not in a good place emotionally and are agitated/unhappy when their needs are not being met. Many young people we met in our home educated community were in need of an alternative solution to learning because our education system does not suit everyone.

With this in mind, I decided the young people who would attend Spiritus would have a relaxed and nurturing space to help them learn what their purpose/talent is, they will always be given respect and they will always be heard when spoken. We would also start our days later as it has been scientifically proven when our bodies are going through puberty rest is just as vital as learning. Without enough rest young peoples internal clock can be described as a form of torture as the repercussions are:

lack of interest in life, moodiness, confusion, unable to make decisions………….

We started in my kitchen in 2019, and launched in April 2021 at 245 Hammersmith Road and haven’t looked back since.

Jacqui O’Connell